Drive dieing how to get data to new one ?

[Hammy]

got a Dell demension 5150 with a 120g sata drive but its starting to make some funny noises lately
i have ordered another sata drive but will i need to format it and do fresh install or is there a way of copying everything from old drive to new one
without formatting ect ?

 

[Kaed]

Should be able to copy documents etc easily enough. But for the purposes of having a functional Windows install, a reinstall of Windows will be best.

 

[ticktock]

Acronis is a nice program to use.

 

[bledd]

Acronis True Image can do a 1:1 copy for you.

Also, most drive manufacturers have a bootable ISO on their site that'll do the same job..